Archive for July, 2009

Yahoo to sell HotJobs and Small Business?

Friday, July 31st, 2009

hotjobs
To stay in the business, Yahoo! is trying to focus on things where they get more revenue and upgrade these while trying to sell others that are not doing great for the company.

Yahoo! has been partnering and dealing with lots of companies to keep its status in the market. Just recently, it partners with AT&T for advertisement displays for small business advertising. This good deal will certainly help Yahoo!

HotJobs, on the other hand, is not doing great. Though it is also known that even with newspapers, this part in there is also declining in terms of revenue, HotJobs can be a big burden to Yahoo! if they will continue to handle this. According to reports, HotJobs was acquired by Yahoo! back in 2001 for $436.

Yahoo! Small Business is Yahoo!’s asset. It is one of the biggest in webhosting firms in the SMB market. It still provides revenue to the company that’s why it’s still unbelievable that Yahoo! is planning to sell this asset. Also, Yahoo! just got a deal with AdReady for SMBs to easily create their own ads which will run on Yahoo! network. With this step, it’s unimaginable that the company is ready to give up Small Business to others.

Whatever the plans of Yahoo! for its affiliates, Yahoo! still has the say on which to stay and which to give up. Maybe they have their own studies that in the coming years, they certainly don’t have the power to control that market and should be given to the leading ones.

Twitter 101: Twitter aids businesses

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

twitterbiz
Twitter has grown to be not only the best social micro-blogging tool for personal use but also as platform for businesses. And though the benefits of using Twitter are continuously expanding as more and more applications are being developed for various uses, businesses are also doing some experiments on where could Twitter help their companies grow.

Twitter has been silent on tools that could help the businesses for they want the companies themselves discover the best part where Twitter could help them.

Twitter’s first major outreach for the businesses was with Twitter 101 For Business: A Special Guide. In here, it discusses the step-by-step guide on how to use Twitter in many business applications and where can it lead the company in the future for other future developments it may discover after using Twitter.

It’s true that Twitter is very simple and yet so powerful for many uses. It has a lot of capabilities that business would want to try on their own system. On Twitter 101, not only the possible aids are discussed but also the important terms that can make the businesses more interesting on Twitter.

What Twitter can become in the future is still in the process of experimenting. Surely, Twitter’s application for businesses is powerful.

Google: AppStore is not the future

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

appstore
Applications on various smartphones and other browser-enabled phones are the latest in mobile technology. This is the primary reason why search engine companies are making steps on how to provide easier and reliable access to their sites to mobile web browsers.

Though as early as now, there are a lot of available applications for use of the available smartphones and browser-enabled phones in the market, there are still quite a number of developments for upgrade and improvements in the available applications.

Google says that although Apple Store is gaining popularity especially to the growing Apple users – from iPods to iPhones – it is still not the future in the mobile technology.

Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and other mobile platforms still needs to be upgraded and improved. The future of mobile browsing is in the hands of the developments for the browsers and sites for mobile access. It is still the web, not the AppStore.

A deal between Microsoft and Yahoo?

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

microsoftyahoo

Though Microsoft has not yet comment on any of the rumors spreading over the techy world that the company has been setting meetings with Yahoo! for possible partnerships, there are practically more reasons to speculate that there are really dealings that are set to be closed.

News circulating in the cyberspace says that top Microsoft executives leave their headquarters down to Silicon Valley to discuss some of the dealings with Yahoo!

Reports say that the dealings may include the possible sold out of Microsoft’s search advertising business to Yahoo! Search to take the lead in selling premium advertising to various companies.

Also, according to some tests, Google, Yahoo! and Bing’s search results are comparably different from each other but the gap between Yahoo! and Bing becomes evidently closer as the results are almost the same. This will provide the two search engines yield more search advertising partnerships.

Well, these are still speculations though tests and experiments gave us positive conclusions.

Chrome OS post rivalry over Android

Monday, July 27th, 2009

android
Google-based operating systems Chrome OS and Android are being seen to be rivals in most aspects. Though Android was released for mobile application devices, the newer applications intended for Android’s growing popularity to be installed on netbooks and other bigger devices other than mobile phones is setting a threat to the recently launched Chrome OS.

Google is aware of it, of course. Prior to the release of Chrome OS, Google have come to know that there are plans on making Android available to netbooks and other computers. Computer manufacturers have even said in advance that they are supporting Android’s use to their newer versions of computers. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Acer are in discussions for their plans of installing Android on their next models.

However, some of the smartphones and mobile phone manufacturers and developers who have decided to use Android for their products are still in doubt whether Google will still be supporting Android over Chrome. HTC, the first to offer smartphones in Android, and Motorolla, who has been blessed with Android’s introduction to their products in the market, are geared full support with Google’s plans on whether to use Android or Chrome.

Of course there are obvious lapses on the growth and possible developments for Android and Chrome but for now, companies still do stick with the capacity of the two Google-based operating systems – Chrome for PCs and netbooks while Android for mobile phones and smartphones

AOL’s executive plan revealed

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

aol

AOL is still in the business. And with the hands of its current CEO Tim Armstrong who took the post in April, everything is still in good hands.

Armstrong initially planned a 100-day meet ups with AOL employees to formulate good strategies on how to save the company and of course still continue in the business. Meetings will be focused on how the company will strive to grow in the coming years and eventually make it to the top.

But six days prior to the completion of the 100-day planned meetings, Tim canceled the succeeding meet ups for the executives already come up with the strategy that they could apply for the company. Though the initial plan was not completed, this is somehow a good step not to waste the remaining days brainstorming.

AOL, as the strategy goes, will focus on the following priorities: focusing on the growth of AOL mini-brands by acquiring new assets and hiring new people (The MediaGlow content business), targeting on premium advertising to be sold to big brands and adding more Google-like self-service ads for direct marketers and smaller businesses (The Platform-A/Ad.com business), getting big deals to attract local advertising market including Patch, a community news network, Going.com, a local events site and MapQuest (Local advertising/content), and the use of AIM, email and ICQ (Communication products).

AOL is also set to launch AOL Ventures, a division in the company to stick businesses it wants to sell off.

How to get in to the Twitter Suggested Users List?

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

suggested

We’ve seen how Twitter eventually became part of our daily lives. It quickly became popular to some after they heard that someone is on Twitter.

People influence people. When the world heard the news that Oprah is on Twitter, her followers quickly followed her and hundreds registered to Twitter to follow her twits. This is same to other influential and iconic men, celebrities, politicians and even organizations and companies such as New York Times. They all get followers in an instant after they get to promote their Twitter accounts.

Taking a look at the top users of Twitter or those with the most number of followers, you’ll realize that they are those who are popular on their respective fields. But if you happen to be a newbie and just roaming around the Twitter website, you’ve probably seen the Suggested User List and wonder how they get in to this prestigious list.

In a blog posted in Twitter last March, Twitter staffs use a specific program that generates the accounts that are popular and interesting to the users. They then look at it and check for its contents. They actually handpicked the accounts that need to be included in the Suggested Users List after being able to verify the list of interesting users. They have their criteria in doing this. Of course, the accounts should be the real accounts of the people behind it. If it’s of Ellen DeGeneres, then the account should be verified that it’s really from her. Also, the contents of the daily updates are important.

So if you wanted to be placed on this list, you have to be popular, post quality contents and update your profile.

On Twitter’s plans to partner with Google, Microsoft etc.

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Since the growth of Twitter, it has become a threat to major search sites such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. But taking consideration of the capacity of Twitter, it is a social networking site, a micro-blogging site where everyone can send in twits and update the world. People don’t visit Twitter to search. They log in to get and post updates. Facebook, on the other hand, is also thinking of a concept on how to topple Twitter.

Behind these obvious issues, Twitter is said to be talking to these sites for future partnership and other plans on how to gain from each other. In an article posted over TechCrunch, some conversations on these meetings were shared to its readers.

By just merely reading some lines and minutes on Twitter’s meet ups with Google and Microsoft, it seems like they are still in search of good plans. They haven’t finalized yet anything. Well, given it’s a meeting, they are all still brainstorming on what’s best on both parties.

Taking some time trying to analyze the things surrounding the future of Twitter and it’s partnerships, they should be careful in grabbing contract signing with other companies for everything is in experimental stage. Any mistakes will surely make an obvious downfall to Twitter.

Twitter vs Google Analytics: The battle for online traffic

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

fight
In terms of driving traffic to your site, we all know that Google Analytics provides an incredible number of traffic visitors to our sites. We use this as a parameter in getting more visitors by posting related articles that get indexed easily by various search engines.

Though the popularity of Twitter as a social networking tool has also proved to be a good way of promoting our sites and entries, never did it top Google Analytics in terms of traffic. We always rely to Google Analytics with its data of daily traffic list.

But according to some tests, Twitter is far more reliable when it comes to driving more traffic to a certain site. In these tests conducted by researchers and other search engine experts, they all found out that Google Analytics failed in some aspects when it comes to documenting the traffic. It undercounts searches coming from Twitter. Reasons include, according to the tests and was confirmed by Google, that some searches through mobile devices are not detected and was therefore left uncounted for the traffic. This is so because when somebody uses Twitter to visit your site, sometimes, it causes issues with the tracking on Google. More so, the test resulted that Google Analytics failed to count as much 500% of traffic from Twitter. With this percentage, you’ll surely believe that Twitter is a helpful device for promoting your site and driving traffic!

Bingtweets - Bing + Twitter

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

bingtweets
The newest website, BingTweets, brings together two of the most popular sites in one homepage to give you both the power of Bing, Microsoft’s newest search engine, and Twitter, the leader in social networking tool.

BingTweets provides the user an access to top subjects over Twitter with the ability of Bing to search more broader topics. This is a convenient way of looking for something and being updated with the latest news and talk of the town. Every 30 to 60 minutes, the topics in the ‘trending topics’ change providing you the most updated lists.

Since this is still new, the service will be directly integrated to Bing’s homepage once the service got popular to the internet users.